1960 South Korean parliamentary election

1960 South Korean parliamentary election

29 June 1960
House of Representatives election

All 233 seats in the House of Representatives
117 seats needed for a majority
Turnout84.3% (3.5 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Chang Myon Seo Sang-il Cho Gyeong-gyu
Party Democratic Socialist Mass Liberal
Last election 79 seats   126 seats
Seats won 175 4 2
Seat change 96 New 124
Popular vote 3,786,304 541,021 249,960
Percentage 41.71% 5.96% 2.75%
Swing 7.72pp New 39.32pp

Results by constituency

Speaker before election

Kwak Sang-hoon
Democratic

Elected Speaker

Kwak Sang-hoon
Democratic

House of Councillors election

All 58 seats in the House of Councillors
30 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Chang Myon Cho Gyeong-gyu
Party Democratic Liberal
Seats won 31 4
Popular vote 5,491,527 653,748
Percentage 51.41% 6.12%

Parliamentary elections were held in South Korea on 29 June 1960. They were the first and only direct elections of the Second Republic and saw the first election of members of the new House of Councillors, together with the fifth election of members of the House of Representatives. They were also the first relatively free and fair national elections held in the country, but would be the last free elections until the 1987 presidential elections. Voter turnout was 84.3%.

The elections took place after President Rhee Syngman amended the constitution and won a third term in the uncontested March 1960 presidential election, which prompted the pro-democracy April Revolution and removed Rhee from power.

The Democratic Party, which had been the opposition party under former President Rhee, received the most votes (42%) in the House of Representatives election, winning 175 of 233 seats, while its 51% vote share in the House of Councillors elections saw it win 31 of the 58 seats. It was the first time that a liberal party won an election in South Korea, but the Democratic Party and its liberal successors would not win an election again until the 1997 presidential election and would not win a legislative election until 2004. Independent politicians received a significant portion of the vote, with 47% of the vote in the House of Representatives elections and 38% of the vote in the House of Councillors elections.

The government formed after the elections was overthrown within less than a year by Park Chung-hee in a coup on 16 May 1961. Park subsequently re-established the presidential system under a military government and served as president of South Korea from 1962 to 1979.